Bolton School to Host ESB Teacher Training Event

On 3 February 2016, Bolton School will host a Teacher Training event for Speaking and Listening, run by English Speaking Board (ESB).

The event will be split into two halves, with the morning session tailored to primary school teachers. This will look in detail at how ESB’s assessments can help children from a very early age. The National Curriculum changes to Speaking and Listening, which is now Spoken Language, will also be discussed. The ESB’s Early Years Assessments (Early Steps Badge 1 and 2) will be looked at in depth, focusing on how they help centres to meet EYFS communication and language requirements. ESB’s Group Speaking Assessments for whole classes and Graded Examinations will also be introduced, and teachers can gain some great ideas and insights on how to encourage children to do well.

Both sessions will include time for questions so that attending teachers can find out everything they want to know from ESB’s representatives on the day.

In June 2015, Bolton School Junior Girls’ teacher Mary Worsley was invited to speak at a similar event at Merchant Taylors’ School. She shared the benefit of her and her pupils’ experiences of participation in ESB. Speaking on that occasion, Mary said, “I highly recommend ESB, it helps pupils aspire to and achieve excellence in oral communication. It is undoubtedly a challenge in its undertaking, but is confidence boosting too. Participation in the assessments provides a growth mindset and the opportunity to pose open ended questions that allow for analytical thought.

“In my opinion, the value of ESB and its preparation enables children to expand their knowledge of a topic in which they are interested so that they can gain confidence in speaking aloud whilst at the same time increasing the depth of their knowledge in that interest.”

The Speaking and Listening Teacher Training event is a really exciting opportunity for teachers in the local area to find out more about ESB and its benefits, and also pick up some great information about best practices and the resources available.